The Sun, the Met and Ronnie Biggs

Hi AllJust seen this:[quote="BBC"]The Sun, the Met and Ronnie BiggsClose relationships between Rupert Murdoch's tabloids and senior officers of the Met police are nothing new, reports Sanchia Berg.A file just released at the National Archives shows how, in 1970, months after Rupert Murdoch bought the Sun, its editor was able to get the police to do the paper a significant favour. In late 1969, the Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs was spotted in Australia. He had been living there quietly, under an assumed name. Police raided his home in a suburb of Melbourne - but he had gone on the run, only hours before. The Australian police embarked on a huge manhunt, taking officers off ordinary duties, knocking on doors up and down the country. They could not find him. Then, in April 1970, the Sun in London obtained a 77-page document purporting to be Biggs' own life story. It was being offered for sale by a lawyer in Melbourne, and another Murdoch paper in Australia was planning to run the story. Each page was stamped with a fingerprint, and signed in Biggs' name: the problem was, how could the Sun check whether these were genuine?The Sun approached the Metropolitan Police, saying they had an important document, relating to a significant crime. On 15 April, Cdr Wallace Virgo visited the paper's offices and was given a copy of the memoir. Larry Lamb, the paper's editor, pointed to the signatures and fingerprints and asked if "the Yard could oblige" by authenticating them. He also said parts of the documents were very critical of the police, libellous in parts, but he suggested that "having taken legal advice, his newspaper would not publish anything detrimental to the police". The police did check all 77 pages - very quickly. The fingerprints matched Biggs' prison records - though their experts thought a cast might have been made and used to stamp it on every page. Read More Here